The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

TRAINING. 137 out against the feeling of distress dangerous ? Undoubtedly, unless itis worked up gradually, andattempted only when an athlete has been carefully trained up to the time of the race. Without practice andspecial preparation, however, it is impossi­ ble for an athlete toexperience the distres. 1 ; felt in finishing a quarter of a mile in 50 sec., a half-mile in 1 min. 58 sec., or a mile under 4min. 20 sec. An untrained man, if attempting to keep pace with a Hindle trainedfor a half-mile, would simply be run to a standstill before half the distance was covered, sicken and vomit, and have but one thought in his mind—that he would never try the like again. The trainedrunner is like a steam engine made of the finest tempered steel, the untrained runner is like asteam engine madeof unwrought iron, the latter will burst under an amount of pressure that will leave the former unimpared. It is often objected to training altogether that it ruins the health, andthe great numbers ofpugilists, oarsmen, and runners who die not long after they become famous is pointed to as proof of this. That agreat numberof famous athletesdo break down prematurely is a fact, but it is not the training that breaks them down, but the licentious excesses that too often follow a period ofstrict training. A writer in The Referee, commenting on the defeat of Kilrain by Slavin in June, 1891, said, "If an evil spirit might wreak hiswicked will in sending a big, powerful, plucky, well-built, loose-limbed, very decent man indeed to physical ruin, sucha demon could not run an athlete fasteron the downward path to perdition than Kilrain raced himself after he achieved in England celebrity." In training aman accumu­ lates and stores up physical strength by a regimen laid down according to the laws that regulate health. To follow this by excesses certainto undermine health is like afterhaving accumu­ lated fuel on a steam engine calculated, with prudent manage­ ment, to send it a long journey while doing hard work all the way, to imprudently saturate the store of fuel with highly inflammable liquids, and then ^et fire to the whole at once. 9